Day: February 12, 2008

A Baltimore police officer was suspended Monday after a YouTube video surfaced on the Internet showing him berating and manhandling a teenage skateboarder at the Inner Harbor.

On the video, the officer, Salvatore Rivieri, puts the boy in a headlock, pushes him to the ground, questions his upbringing, threatens to “smack” him and repeatedly accuses the youngster of showing disrespect because the youth refers to the officer as “man” and “dude.”

But the military masterminds’ most sinister ambitions were embodied in their behemoth Sonnengewehr, or “Sun Gun” projectâ€“ an orbital weapon intended to exact fiery punishment upon the enemies of the Third Reich, forever establishing their dominance over the genetically inferior Untermenschen of the Earth.

The Sun Gun was based on a design originally conceived by Hermann Oberth, a physicist who is widely credited as one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics. In his 1929 book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt, or “Ways to Spaceflight,” Oberth presented a scientific description of a hypothetical manned space station orbiting at an altitude of one thousand kilometers. He detailed potential construction methods using prefabricated sections, described a rotational cycle to produce centrifugal gravity within the station, and outlined a system for periodic resupply missions. Oberth advocated the development of these Raumstations to serve as astronomical observatories and telegraph relays, in addition to Earth-observing activities such as meteorology, search-and-rescue, and military intelligence. What interested the Nazi scientists, however, was his suggestion that a specially engineered 100-meter-wide concave mirror could be used to reflect sunlight into a concentrated point on the Earth. But whereas Oberth’s design had peaceful intentionsâ€“ to use the intense heat to produce electricity with steam turbinesâ€“ the nefarious Nazis envisioned a colossal heat ray which could vanquish humanity.

By the way, according to a story in USA Today, director Paul Thomas Anderson derived the dialogue from â€œa transcript he found of the 1924 congressional hearings over the Teapot Dome scandal.â€ Sen. Albert Fall described oil drainage thus: â€œSir, if you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, Iâ€™ll end up drinking your milkshake.â€ He was convicted of taking bribes for oil rights on public lands.